Samsung Hires Ex-Apple Store Designer, Plans U.S. Retail Push

Samsung already sells its products through dedicated stations at Best Buy and shopping malls across the country, but according to The Information the company is gearing up for a “deeper investment in U.S. retail” after hiring former Apple Store designer Tim Gudgel.

Gudgel’s hiring follows a previously unreported Samsung hire earlier this year, when the company tapped Michael Forrest, who served as director of retail at Apple before taking a job at Microsoft in 2009. Forrest now serves at vice president and general manager of retail for the Samsung’s American division. Both hires suggest Samsung is working on a huge retail push, though whether that means a chain of Galaxy Stores is unclear.

Samsung certainly has enough product in its arsenal to fill up a store. In fact, the company’s army of smartphones, tablets, computers, smart TVs, wearables and household appliances could probably fill up an entire mall. The South Korean company may be beating Apple on a global scale, but in the U.S. it still lags behind the iPhone maker. A chain of Galaxy stores could definitely give Samsung a boost, especially if they were designed to demonstrate how the company’s ecosystem of products can seamlessly work together, something Apple’s stores still don’t address.